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IN THE OUTER COURT.
IN THE OUTER COURT
T!Y
ANNIE BESANT
FOURTH EDITION
The Theosophical Publishing; Society London
1906
,.1*
CONTENTS.
I .UKICATION 9
Thought CoNXKor 45
Tni
SriKlTUAL Al.CHlMY IIQ
On the Thkkshoit) 157
Tlir Alxnc arc tlio verbnlini rtpiirts of five Lectures j;ivcn in ihc IM.ivalsky Lodge, London, at the Headquarters of tlie i-",uropean Section of the Theoiophical Society, during August, 1S9.V
829317
PURIFICATION
L P: C T U R E I.
PURIKICATION.
If it were possible to place ourselves in thought at a centre in space from which we might sec the course of evolution, from which we might study the history of our chain of worlds rather as they might be seen in imagination, in picture, than in the appearance that they present as physical, astral and mental, I think that thus looking outwards on these evolving groups, this evolving humanity, wc might figure the whole in a picture. I see a great mountain standing in space, with a road that winds round the mountain, round and round until the summit is reached. And the turns on this road round the mountain are seven in number, and on each turn I see seven stations where pilgrims stay for a while, and within these stations they have to climb round and round.* As we trace the road
* The piljjiimagc of humanity duririi^ its present cycle of evohi- tion consists in pas>ing seven times round a. chain of seven globes ; on each globe a stay is made of many millions of years, and of these stays there arc forty-nine — seven globes each dwelt on seven times.
lO In the Outer Court.
upwards along this spiral track we see how it ends at the summit of the mountain — that it leads to a mighty Temple, a Temple as of white marble, radiant, which stands there shining out against the ethereal blue. That Temple is the goal of the pilgrimage, and they who are in it have finished their course — finished it so far as that mountain is concerned — and remain there only for the help of those who still are climbing. If we look more closely at the Temple, if we try to see how that Temple is built, we shall see in the midst of it a Holy of Holies, and round about the centre are Courts, four in number, ringing the Holy of Hohes as concentric circles, and these are all within the Temple ; a wall divides each Court from its neighbours, and to pass from Court to Court the wayfarer must go through a gateway, and there is but one in each encircling wall. So all who would reach the centre must pass through these four gate- ways, one by one. And outside the Temple there is yet another enclosure — the Outer Court — and that Court has in it many more than arc seen within the Temple itself. Looking at the Temple and the Courts and the mountain road that winds below, we see this picture of human evolution, and the track along which the race is treading, and the Temple that is its goal. And along that road
Purification. 1 1
round the mountain stands a vast mass of human beings, climbing indeed, but cHmbing so slowly, rising step after step ; sometimes it seems as though for every step forward there is a step backward, and though the trend of the whole mass is upwards it mounts so slowly that the pace is scarcely perceptible. And this aeonian evolution of the race, chmbing ever upwards, seems so slow and weary and painful that one wonders how the pilgrims have the heart to climb so long. And tracing it round and round the mountain millions of years pass in the tracing, and millions of years in following a pilgrim, and while he treads it for these millions of years an endless succession of lives seems to pass, all spent in climbing upwards — we weary even in watching these vast multitudes who climb so slowly, who tread round after round as they mount this spiral pathway. Watching them we ask our- selves : Why is it that they climb so slowly } How is it that these millions of men take so long a journey ? Why are they ever striving upwards to this Temple that stands at the top .'
Looking at them, it seems that they travel so slowly because they see not their goal, and understand not the direction in which they are travelUng. And as we watch one or another on the pathway, we see that they are always strayuig
12 /// tJie Oiiiey Court,
aside, attracted hither and thither, and with no purpose in their going ; they walk not straight onwards as though intent on business, but wander hither and thither, hke children running after a blossom here, and chasing a butterfly there. So tluit all the time seems to be wasted, and but little progress is made when the night falls upon them and the day's march is over. Looking at them, it does not seem as though even progress in intellect, slow as that also is, made the pace very much more rapid. When we look at those whose intellect is scarcely developed, they seem after each day of life to sink to sleep almost on the place they occupied the day before ; and when we glance over those who are more highly evolved so far as intellect is concerned, they too are travelling very, very slowly, and seem to make small progress in each day of life. And looking thus at them, our hearts grow weary with the climbing, and we wonder that they do not raise their eyes and understand the direction in which their path is taking them.
Now that Outer Court that some of the climbers in front are reaching, that Outer Court of the Temple, seems not only to be gained by the path that winds round and round the hill so often ; for as we look at it, we see that from many points in this spiral pathway the Outer Court may be
Purification. 1 3
reached, and that there are briefer ways that wind not round the hill but go straight up its side, paths that may be climbed if a traveller's heart be brave and if his limbs be strong. And trying to see how men find their way more swiftly than their fellows to the Outer Court, we seem to gather that the first step is taken off this long spiral road, the first step is taken straight in the direction of this Outer Court that men can reach from so many points in the long roadway, when some Soul who has been travelling round and round, for millen- niums perhaps, recognises for the first time a purpose in the journey, and catches for a moment a gleam from the Temple on the summit. For that White Temple sends rays of light over the mountain side, and now and then a traveller raises his eyes from the flowers and the pebbles and the butterflies upon the path, and the gleam seems to catch his glance and he looks upward at the Temple, and for a moment he sees it ; and after that first momentary glimpse he is never again quite as he was before. For, though but for a moment, he has recognised a goal and an ending ; for a moment he has seen the summit towards which he is climbing, and the pathway, steep, but so much shorter, that leads directly up the hill-side beyond which the Temple gleams. And in that moment of
14 In the Outer Court.
recognising the goal that Has in front, in that moment of understanding, if it be but for an instant, that instead of chmbing round and round full seven times and making so many little circles on the upward path — for the path winds upon itself as well as round the hill, and each spiral round the mountain side has seven turns within itself and they loo take long in the treading — -when the Soul has caught these glimpses of its goal and of the directer pathway that leads towards it, then it understands for that moment that the pathway has a name and that the name is " Service," and that those who enter on that shorter pathway must enter it through a gate on which " Service of Man " is shining in golden letters ; it understands that before it can reach even the Outer Court of the Temple it must pass through that gateway and realise that life is meant for service and not for self- seeking, and that the only way to climb upwards more swiftly is to climb for the sake of those who are lagging, in order that from the Temple more effective help may be sent down to the climbers than otherwise would be possible. As I said, it is only the flash of a moment, only a glimpse that comes and that vanislies again ; for the eye has only been caught by one of these rays of light that come down from the mountain. And there are so
[Purification. 1 5
many attractive objects scattered along this winding path that the Soul's glance is easily again drawn towards them ; but inasmuch as once it has seen the light, there is the possibility of seeing it again more easily, and when once the goal of achievement and the duty and power of service has had even this passing imaginative realisation in the Soul, then there remains a desire to tread that shorter pathway, and to find a way straight up the hill to the Outer Court of the Temple.
After that first vision, gleams come from time to time, and on day after day of this long chmbing the gleam returns to the Soul, and each glimpse perhaps is brighter than the last, and we see that these Souls who have just for a moment recognised that there is a goal and purpose in life, begin to climb with more steadfastness than their fellows ; although they are still winding their way round the hill, we see that they begin to practise more steadily what we recognise as virtues, and that they give them- selves more persistently to what we recognise as religion, which is trying to tell them how they may climb, and how the Temple may finally he won. So that these Souls who have caught a gleam of this possible ending, and feel some drawing tov.-ards the path that leads thereunto, become marked out a little from their fellows by their diligence and
1 6 //; tJie Outer Court.
heedfulness, and they go to the front of this endless multitude that is climbing along the road ; they travel more swiftly, because there is more purpose in their travelling, because they are taking a direction which they begin to understand, and they begin, though very imi>erfectly, to walk with a definite aim, and to try to live with a definite purpose. And although they scarcely yet recognise what that purpose in the end will be — it is rather a dim intuition than a definite understanding of the way — still they are no longer roaming aimlessly from side to side, sometimes a little upwards and sometimes a little downwards ; they are now climbing steadily up the winding pathway, and each day of life sees them climb a little faster, until they are distinctly ahead of the multitudes in spirituality of life, in the practice of virtue, and in the growing desire to be of service to their fellow- men. They are in this way travelling more swiftly towards the summit, though still on the winding road, and they are beginning to try to train themselves in definite ways ; they are beginning also to try to help their neighbours, that they too may climb with them, and as they are making their way a little more swiftly forward they are always reaching out helpmg hands to those around them, and trying to take them with them upwards more
Purification. 17
swiftly along the patli. And presently, with those they are thus loving and serving, they are met by a form that is beautiful, though at first somewhat stern in aspect, which speaks to them and tells them something of a shorter way ; we know that the form which comes to meet them is Knowledge, and that Knowledge is beginning to whisper to them something of the conditions of a swifter progress; the Religion that has been helping them in the practice of virtue is, as it were, the sister of this Knowledge, and the Service of Man is sister to it also, and the three together begin to take charge of the Soul, until at last a brighter dawning comes, and a fuller recognition, and you hear this Soul beginning to make definite to itself the purpose of its climging, and not only to dream of a future, but to make that dream more defmite in its purpose, and you find it recognising service as the law of life. Now', with deliberate intention, a promise to help in the progress of the race breathes softly forth from the lips of the Soul ; and that is the first vow the Soul makes, to give itself sometime to the service of the race — a vow not yet of full purpose, but still with the promise of purpose hidden within it. It has been written in a Scripture that one of the great Ones who trod the shorter road, one of the great Ones who climbed the steeper
B
l8 In the Outer Court.
path, and Who climbed it so swiftly that He left behind Him all His race and stood alone in the forefront, the firstfruits, the promise of humanity ; it is said of Him, Who in later ages was known as the Buddha, that " He perfected His vow, Kalpa after Kalpa " ; for the achievement that was to crown His life had to begin with the promise of service, and it is that vow of the Soul which links it to the great Ones that have gone before, that makes as it were the hnk that draws it to the probationary path, the path that leads it into and across the Outer Court, up to the very gateway of the Temple itself. At last, after many lives of striving, many lives of working, growing purer and nobler and wiser, life after life, the Soul makes a distinct and clear speaking forth of a will that now has grown strong ; and v/hen that will announces itself as a clear and definite purpose, no longer the whisper that aspires, but the word that commands, then that resolute will strikes at the gateway which leads to the Outer Court of the Temple, and strikes with a knocking which none may deny — for it has in it the strength of the Soul that is determined to achieve, and that has learned enough to under- stand the vastness of the task that it undertakes. For that Soul that now is standing at the outer gateway of this Court, knows what it is striving to
Punfication. 19
accomplish, realises the vastness of the difficulty that lies in front. For it means nothing less than this, that it is going to come out of its race — that race which is to be climbing round and round and round for endless millenniums, still passing from globe to globe, round that which we know as the chain, passing round and round that chain in weariful succession ; this brave Soul that now is knocking at the outer gateway means to climb that same mountain in but a few human lives, means to take step by step, breasting the hill at its steepest, the path that will lead it right upwards into the very Holy of Holies ; and it means to do within a space of time that is to be counted by but a few lives, that which the race will take myriads of lives to accomplish — a task so mighty that the brain might almost reel at its difficulty ; a task so great that of the Soul that undertakes it one would almost say that it had begun to realise its own divinity, and the omnipotence which lies enshrined within itself. For to do in a few lives from this pomt of the cycle that the race has reached, what the race as a whole is going to do, not only in the races that lie in front, but in the rounds that also lie in the future — to do that is surely a task worthy of a God, and the accomplishment means that the divine power is perfecting itself within the huuKin form.
20 hi the Outer Court.
So the Soul knocks at the gateway, and the door swings open to let it through, and it passes into the Outer Court. Through that Court it has to go, traversing it step by step until it reaches the first of the gateways that lead into the Temple itself — the first of those four gateways, every one of which is one of the great Initiations, beyond the first of which no Soul may tread that has not embraced the Eternal for evermore, and that has not given up its interest in the mere transitory things that lie around. For when once a Soul has passed through the gateway of the Temple, it goeth out no more ; once it passes through that gateway into one of the inner Courts that lie beyond it and that lead to the Holy of Holies, it goes out never again. It has chosen its lot for all the millenniums to come ; it is in the place which none leaves when once he has entered it. Within the Temple itself the first great Initiation lies. But the Soul whose progress we are tracing is as yet only going to prepare itself in this Outer Court of the Temple, in order that in lives to come it may be able to ascend the seven steps to the first gateway, and await permission to pass over the threshold into the Temple itself. What then shall be its work in the Outer Court } How shall it lead its lives therein, in order that it may become worthy to
Purijication. 21
knock at the Temple gate ? That is the subject that hes m front of us — the subject I am going to try to put before you, if I may speak but to one or two to whom the speaking may appeal. For well I know, brothers and sisters mine, in depicting this Outer Court, that I may say much that may seem unattractive, much that may seem even repellent. Hard enough is it to find the way to the Outer Court ; difficult enough is it to practise religion and all the virtues which make the human Soul fit even to knock at the gateway of this outer stage, this Outer Court around the Temple, and they who enter into that Court have made great progress in their past ; it may be, it will be, that to some the life that is led therein may scarce seem attractive — to some who have not yet definitely recognised the aim and the end of life. For, mind you, none are in the Outer Court save those who have definitely vowed themselves to service, those who have given everything, and wlio have asked for nothing in return save the privilege of serving, who have defmitely recognised the transitory nature of earthly things, who have definitely embraced the task which they desire to achieve, who have turned their backs on the flowery paths which go round the mountain, and are resolutely determined to climb straight upwards, no matter
22 hi the Outer Court.
what the cost, no matter what the strain as day after day of Hfe swiftly succeed each other. There is to be struggle, and much of struggle, in this Outer Court, for much has to be done therein in brief space of time.
The divisions of this work that I have made are arbitrary. They are not steps, as it were, across the Court, for each of these divisions has to be taken at one and the same time and is always being worked at ; it is a simultaneous training, and is not divided into stages as I have had to divide it for clear- ness of explanation. I have called these divisions " Purification," and " Thought Control," and the " Building of Character," and " Spiritual Alchemy," and " On the Threshold." These divisions do not mean that each is to be taken separately, because all these things have to be done at one and the same time, and the Soul that is spending its lives in the Outer Court is busy with all this work in all the lives that it spends there ; it is these tasks that it must partially, at least, have learned to accomplish, ere it dare stand at the Temple gate itself. And if I take them now one by one, it is in order that we may understand them the better ; but we must also understand throughout my sketching of these steps, that it is not perfect accomplishment of any one of them that the Soul must have achieved ere
Purification. 23
it may reach the gateway of the first Initiation ; but only that it must have partially accomplished, only that it must be striving with something of success, only that it must understand its work and be doing it with diligence ; when the work is perfectly accomplished, it will be in the Holy of Holies itself. Purification then is to be part of its work, self- purification, the purification of the lower nature, until every part of it vibrates perfectly in harmony with the higher, until everything is pure that belongs to the temporary part of man, to that which we call the personality, that which has not in it the permanent individual, but is only the assemblage of quahties and characteristics which that individual gathers round it in the course of each of its many lives — all the outer qualities and attributes round the Soul, all these garments in which it clothes itself, and which it carries with it often life after hfe, all that which it takes up as it comes back to incarnation, all that which it builds during incarna- tion, all that which the permanent individuality gathers round itself during earth-life and out of which it extracts the essence in order to transfuse it into its own growing and eternal Self. A phrase that very well symbolises the position of the Soul at this moment, when it has deliberately entered this Outer Court and sees the work stretching in front
24 /// the Outer Court.
of it, a phrase that very well describes its attitude has been used lately by Mr. Sinnett. It is the phrase of " allegiance to the Higher Self," a useful expression, if it be understood. It means the deliberate decision that all that is temporary and that belongs to the lower personality shall be cast aside ; that each life that has to be lived in this lower world shall be devoted to the single purpose of gathering together material which is useful, which then shall be handed on to the Higher One who lives and grows out of that which the lower gathers ; that the lower self — realising that it is essentially one with the greater that is above it, that its only work in the world is to come here as the temporary active agency which gathers together that of which its permanent Self has need — determines that the whole of its life down here shall be spent in that service, and that the life's purpose is merely the gathering of material which then shall be taken back to the Higher, who is really the essence of itself, and who shall thus be enabled to build up the ever-growing individuality which is higher than the personality of a life. The " allegiance to the Higher Self " means the recognition of this service by the lower, the living of the lower no longer for itself but for the purpose of serving that which endures ; so that all the life in the Outer Court is
Purific(xtion. 25
to be this life of definite allegiance to the Higher, and all the work that is done in the Outer Court is to be work that is done for the sake of that greater One, who is now realised as the true Self that is to endure throughout the ages, and that is to be built ever into fuller and fuller life by this deliberate, loyal service of the messenger that it sends into the outer world.
In this work that which is sometimes spoken of in the great Scriptures of the world as the preliminary step for the successful searching after the Soul, is one that I am imagining as now lying behind the Soul. You may remember to have read in one of the greatest of the Upanishads, that if a man would find the Soul the first thing to do is to " cease from evil ways " ; but that I am presuming the Soul has done ere yet it has entered into the Outer Court. For those who enter it are no longer subject to the commonest temptations of earth-life ; they have grown beyond those, and when they come into the incarnation which is to see them within the Outer Court, they will at least have turned from evil ways and will have ceased from walking therein with pleasure. If ever they are found in such ways at all it will be by a sudden slip immediately retrieved, and they will have been born into the world with a conscience which refuses to let them go wrong
26 hi the Outer Court.
when the right is seen before it. And though '■ conscience might have sometimes blundered in choice — though the conscience (not yet perfect its experience) might sometimes have chose wrongly ere entering within this Outer Court, anc, even after having entered, still it would be keenly desirous to choose rightly. The lower self would not deliberately go against this voice, for any one who deliberately goes against the voice of con- science has not entered into this Outer Court at all, nor is ready to ejiter it ; the Souls that have entered therein have at least chosen to strive after the right, and they would fain obey this voice that bids them choose it, and not deliberately disobey ; they would come into this world with that much of their climbing behind them, and with a deliberate will to do the highest that they see. They now will have to deal with subtler temptations, those in the Outer Court ; not with the grosser temptations of the outside world, but with the subtler and keener temptations that come to the Soul when it has to live so swiftly through its lives, when it has to climb so rapidly up the mountain side. For indeed it has no time to waste in paltering with temptations, in slowly building virtue ; it must climb onwards and upwards ever, now it has once come within the limits of even the Outer Court of the Temple. And
Purification. 27
\ will find Intellectual difficulties all round it and 'intellectual temptations — temptations to intellectual '"ambition, temptations to intellectual pride, tempta- '' tions to be proud' of that which it has gathered, and to hold firmly for its own sake to that which it has achieved. And not only will it feel this strong grip of ambition, this grasping of the nature of pride, that would keep for itself and would build up a wall between itself and those who are below it, but it will also have a desire for knowledge, a desire for knowledge for itself, a desire for knowledge that it may gain and hold rather as against the world than for it. And this temptation veils itself as love of knowledge for its own sake, and love of truth for its own sake, and oftentimes the Soul finds, as its eyesiglit grows keener and clearer, that this supposed aspiring love is often only the desire to be separated from its fellows, to have what they do not share and to enjoy what it does not give to them. This separateness is one of the great dangers of the growing Soul, the pride in separate- ness and the desire to be separated — the desire to grow and to learn and to achieve in order that it may possess ; this is one of the temptations that will touch it even when it has passed through the gateway of the Outer Court. For the Soul will see knowledge within its grasp, and will desire to hold
28 In the Outer Court.
it ; will see power within its grasp and will desire to ha\'« it ; desire, not only for the sake of service, but also partly because these make itself the greater, and it is inclined to build this wall about itself so that it may keep for self that which it has achieved ; presently it begins to understand that if it would ever traverse the Outer Court and reach the gate- way that is shining ahead of it, it must get rid of all this intellectual ambition, and all this intellectual pride, and all this desire for knowledge w^hich it will hold for itself, and everything that makes it separate from its brother Souls ; then it wall begin to purify its intellectual nature, it will begin to scrutinise the motives which impel it to effort and the motives which move ft to action, and it will begin carefully to look at itself in the light that shines from the Temple, and that is ever coming through the Temple windows and illuminating this Outer Court with rays of spiritual Life ; light in which every shadow seems to be darker, and the very things that look bright in the lower world are seen after all to be shadows and not to be rays of light at all. Then the Soul will realise that this desire-nature which it has brought with it, and which mixes itself with the intellectual, that this desire-nature has to be purified from every touch of the personal self ; it will deliberately begin this
Purification. 29
work of purification, it will deliberately and consciously and steadfastly set itself to work to purge out of itself everything which strives to take for the personality, and everything which makes it in any sense separate from those that are below it as well as from Those that are above. For this the Soul learns — and it is one of the lessons of the Outer Court — that there is only one way which these doors swing open, the doors that shut it out of the Temple, and that is by the breaking down of the walls that separate it from its fellows that are below. Then the walls that separate ft from t?iose that are in front disappear, absorbed as it were by their own action ; for that gate that has to be passed through is a gate that will only open to him who desires passage, as he breaks down the walls of his own nature and is willing to share with all that which he achieves.
Thus he begins this work of purifying the desire- nature, and he takes this lower self in hand to purge out of it everything which is personal. How shall he purify himself? He does not want to destroy ; for that which he has gathered together is experience, and experience has been built into faculty and transmuted into power, and he now needs all these powers that he has been gathering during the cUmb that lies below him, and it will not
30 In tlie Outer Court,
do to destroy all that he has gathered ; he wants to take these powers on with him, but to take them purified instead of foul. How then shall he purify them ? It would be so much easier to destroy ; it would need so much less patience to kill some of these qualities that he has ; he feels as if he could strike at them and slay them, and so be rid of them. But it is not thus that he can enter into the Temple ; for he must take there as his sacrifice that has to be offered on the very threshold of the Temple, everything that he has gathered in his past, that he has turned into power and faculty; he must not go in thither empty-handed, he must take with him all that he has gathered in his lower life. So that he dares not destroy; he must perform the harder work of purification ; he must keep the essence of all the qualities, while he strikes away from them everything that is personal. All the lessons he has learnt of virtue and of vice, all these are the experiences that in the pilgrimage behind him he has gathered ; he must take the essence of every quality with him, for these are the results of all his climbing ; but he must take them as pure gold to the altar, and no dross must be mingled with the gold.
Let us take one or two of these qualities in order to see clearly what purification means ; for if we
Purificatioji, 3 1
understand it as to one or two qualities, then at our leisure we can work it out for the rest, and the lesson is all-important as to how the purification is to be worked.
Let me take first a mighty force which is in every human being, which he develops in the low stages of his growth, which he carries on with him as he evolves, and which it is now his work to purify. Let us take the quality that in its lowest stage we know as anger, as wrath, as that tremendous power that the man develops, by which he fights his way through the world, by which he struggles, and by which he oftentimes overcomes all opposition : that tremendous energy of the Soul rushing out through the lower nature and breaking a man's way for him through difficulties in the earlier stages of his growth ere yet he has learned to guide and to control it ; an undisciplined energy, destructive because it is undisciplined ; a tremendous force, valuable because it is force, although destructive in its workings as we see it in the lower world. The man ere yet he has entered into the Outer Court has somewhat changed that energy of the Soul ; he has changed it into a virtue, a very real virtue, and he has had this virtue long as his possession in the outside world ; then it went by the names (when it had reached the stage of virtue)
32 In the Outer Court.
of noble indignation, of passion against injustice, of hatred of all that was wrong, and that was base, and that was vile, and that was cruel, and it did good service in the outer world under these many forms of destructive energy. For this man, ere yet he came into the Outer Court, had been working for the world, and had been practising this virtue ; and when he saw the cruelty that was done upon the weak his passion broke forth against it, and when an injustice was wrought by a tyrant then he rose up against it in indignation ; he had learned, as he practised this virtue, to purify it from much of the dross ; for the anger that he had in his earlier lives was anger for himself — he was wrathful when he was injured, he struck back when some one struck at him ; but he had long ago conquered that mere brute wrath in the lower nature which guards itself by destructive energy against a wrong, and pays back evil with evil and hate with hate. Before he entered the Outer Court he had passed beyond that earlier stage, and had learned to some extent to transform that energy of anger in him ; he had purified it to a great extent from the personal element, and he had learned to be angry less because he himself was injured, tlum because some one else was wronged ; he had learned to be indignant less
Purification. 33
because he suffered, than because some one else was put to pain; and when he saw some cruel creature trampling on a helpless one, he sprang forward to rescue that helpless creature and struck at the wrong-doer and cast him to one side ; in that way he had used the higher anger to conquer the lower, in that way he had used the nobler passion to slay the more animal passion of his lower life, and he had learned in these lives that now lie far behind him, to get rid so far of the grosser qualities of the passion ; he had learned to be no longer angry for himself, but angry only for those whom he desired to help. For he was a man, remember, who had long recognised service as duty, and one of his ways of service was by striking down oppressors and by casting aside those who were inflicting suffering ; this anger of his blazed up hotly against all forms of wrong, and he worked for the weaker, and perchance did hero's work in the world. But within that calmer atmosphere of the Court of the Temple, illuminated by the rays of absolute compassion shining forth from the Holy of Holies, there is no place for anger of any sort, even though the anger be purged from personal antagonism. For the aspirant has now to learn that those who do the wrong are also his brothers, and that they suffer more in their wrong-doine than do c
34 /;/ tJie Outer Court.
their fellow-men by the injury that they may inflict ; he has to learn that this noble indignation of his, and this passion of his against the wrong, and this fire that blazed forth to consume a tyranny that touched not himself, that that is not the characteristic of the Soul that is striving onwards towards the Divine ; for the Divine Life loves all the children that It sends into the world, no matter what may be their position, nor how low the grade of their evolution. For the Love of the Divine that emanated all has nothing outside Itself. The Life that is Divine is the core of everything that exists, and there is God present in the heart of the evil- doer as well as in the heart of the saint. Within the Outer Court the Divine must be recognised, no matter how thick are the veils that hide it, for there the eyes of the Spirit are to be opened, and there is to be no veil between it and the Self of other men ; therefore this noble indignation is to be purified until it is purged of everything that is of anger, and is changed into an energy that leaves nothing outside its helpful range ; until this great energy of the Soul become an energy that is absolutely pure, that goes out to help the tyrant as well as the slave, and that embraces within its limit the one who is trampling as well as the one who is trampled ; for the Saviours of men choose
Purification. 35
not whom They will serve — Their service is a service that knows no limitations, and They that are the servants of all hate none within the Universe. That which once was anger has to become by purification, protection for the weak, impersonal opposition to strong evil-doing, perfect justice to all.
And so again as he does with anger he must do with love, with love that began showing itself forth in him in its lowest and poorest form as the Soul was beginning to grow, that showed itself forth, perhaps, in forms that were foul and in forms that were vile, that only knew the goings outward to another, and that in its self-gratification troubled not much as to what happened even to that which it loved ; as the Soul has been growing upwards, love has changed its character, has become nobler, less selfish, less personal, until it has attached itself to the higher elements in the beloved instead of to the outer casing, and the love that was sensual has become moralised and purified. It must be made still purer when the candidate has come within the Outer Court of the Temple ; he must carry in with him love, but it is love that must have begun to lose its exclusiveness ; it is love which must keep its fire ever burning more warmly, but the warmth must .spread out further and further
36 In the Outer Court.
and be purified from everything of lower nature ; and that means that the love shall be a love that in going out to others shall always seek to serve them rather than to serve itself, shall always seek how much it may give to them rather than how much it may take from them, and so a love that will be becoming gradually Divine in its essence, going out according to the measure of the need rather than according to the richness of the return.
As the Soul is thus striving after purification, it will have certain tests that it will apply to all this process through which it is passing itself, and when it is at work using its energy in order to accomplish some service to man it will bring to that service the Ithuriel spear of the absence of personality, and will see what starts up in answer to the touch of the spear. If it find that when it is doing service, when its energy is going out to achieve something that it realises as good, if in testing that action and its motive it find that the " I " is subtly mingled with the energy ; if it find that it looks less for the success of the working than for the success of the operator ; if it fmd that when it fails in its own working but sees that work accomplished by another, there is something of disappointment mingling in the cup of its delight at seeing the work achieved ; then it knows that the personality is still
Purification. 37
lingering in it, that if it were what it ought to be, it would care only for the triumph of the service, and not for having itself contributed to the triumph. And if it find that in personal failure there is still a sting of disappointment ; if it find that from the failure of its own outgoing energy there comes back to it something of depression, something of dis- couragement, something which clouds for a moment its peace and its serenity, then it realises that in that sting and in that cloud there is still a part of the personality that needs to be destroyed, and it sets to work to get rid also of that weakness, and to clear away that cloud from the eyes of the Soul. And if it find, when it is measuring and testing the nature of its love, that there is there also a little chill, a little feeling of disappointment, when that which it has loved remains indifferent to its giving, though it has served nobly and loved greatly ; if it find that the outward flowing of its love is inclined to shrink backward and to check its course, because those to whom it gives the love answer not back with love in return ; then, again, this Soul — that is so stern to itself whilst so compassionate to all other Souls — knows that in this also there is a subtle lingering of the personality, and that it is still work- ing for something for itself, and is not finding its highest joy in the mere glory of the giving. Then,
38 In the Outer Court.
again, it sets to work, this Soul that is in the Outer Court of the Temple, to purify away that lingering part of the personality, until the love flows out, never asking whether aught comes back to it, never waiting to see if answer is there ; for it knows in truth that the need for love is greatest where answer of love there is none, and it knows that those Souls have the greatest need to receive who themselves at present give nothing to the love that helps.
In this way the Soul deliberately labours for growth ; deliberately it works at itself, purifying always the lower nature with unceasing effort and with untiring demand ; for ever it is comparing itself not with those who are below it but with Those who are above it, ever it is raising its eyes towards Those who have achieved, and not looking downwards towards those who are still only climb- ing upwards towards the Outer Court. And it can never for a moment rest, it can never be content, until it sees itself ever coming nearer to its goal, until there is less opposition within itself to the passing through it of the light of the Holy Ones who have become Divine.
Within this Outer Court the temptations of men are by their virtues, not by their vices ; subtle temptations assail their nature that appear like
Purification. 39
angels of light ; and ever the temptation comes to these Souls that are passing onwards through that vvliich is greatest in them, by that which is noblest in them ; it is their virtues which are taken, and, using the advantage of their lack of knowledge, these are turned into temptations ; for they have grown be)'ond the point where vice could touch or tempt tliem, and it is only by using the mask of virtue that illusion may avail to lead them astray. That is why they learn to be so hard upon them- selves, that is why they are so ceaseless in the de- mands that they make upon themselves ; they know full well by their own slipping, and by the slipping of their comrades, that those virtues that in the lower world are difficult of achievement are the very things that become easy to those within the Outer Court, and that these are then, as it were, stolen by the enemy, in order that he may turn them into temptations by which also they may be made to falter on the Path. Therefore it is that they learn that the only safety for them is in living with- in the light of the Higher Self ; therefore it is that they realise that they dare not stand at the Gate of the Temple until that Light shines out radiantly within them, and therefore they are ever striving to make themselves absolutely translucent. For how shall they dare to pass into a Light to which every-
40 In the Outer Court.
thing that is Hght here is but as shadow ; how shall they dare to pass into a Light at which no impure eyes can look for the dazzling quality of its rays, making all that we call virtue seem imperfect of achievement, and all that we call beauty but as ugliness and as flatness ; how shall they dare to go within the Temple, where the Eyes of the Master shall rest upon them, and they shall stand, the Soul naked, in His presence ; how shall they dare to stand there, if within the heart there be still one stain of imperfection, and if when He looks into the heart there be found there one soil to offend the purity of His gaze ?
Therefore is it that in this Outer Court things that are painful in the world outside become as joy, and the suffering that purifies is the most welcome of friends ; therefore is it that the pattern of all Yogis, He Who is said to be Himself the Great Yogi, the Master and the Patron of all ; therefore is it that He stands ever in the burning-ground, and that flames play ever round His presence and con- sume everything that they touch. For in the hearts of those who are in the Outer Court there are still hidden places into which the light has not yet pierced, and the final purification ere they enter into the Temple comes from these living flames of the Lord Himself, and they burn up all that lurks
Purification. 41
unseen in the hidden chambers of the heart of him who is to be a disciple. He has given himself to his Lord and he keeps nothing back ; in that mighty burning-ground, which stands before the gateway of the Temple, is the blazing fire through which all must pass ere yet the Temple Gate can open for them ; it is beyond the fire and in it that the figure of the Great Vogi is seen, from Whom those flames come forth, taking their purifying power from the glory of His Feet. It is from Him, the Great Guru, that comes this final purification of the disciple, and then he enters within the gate- way that shuts him out for ever from all the in- terests of the lower world, save that of service ; which separates him from all human desires save as he works for the redemption of Humanity ; there remains nothing on earth which is able to attract him, because he has seen the Face of his Lord and before that all other lights grow dim.
THOUGHT CONTROL.
LECTURE II Thought Control.
Perhaps in the subject or rather the section of the subject that I have to deal with to-night there will be almost more of difference than in any other part of it, between the view that would be taken, say, by a thoughtful well-balanced virtuous man in the world and the view which is taken by the Occultist. I shall vs'ant, as it were, to lead you step by step from the beginning, and to show you how this change of standpoint occurs ; for it is perhaps especially in regard to the mind, the position that the mind holds towards the man, the place that it has in his developing nature, the functions that it performs and the way in which it performs them — it is on these matters that so much of difference will arise according to the position of the thinker, according to the view that he takes of the world at large and of the part which he there is called upon to play. Let us for a moment, in order to realise 45
46 /;/ the Outer Court.
just where we are in this matter, let us for a moment try to think how a good and just and intellectual man — that is a man who is distinctly not careless nor frivolous nor worldly in the ordi- nary sense of the terms — let us consider how such a person, sober in his judgment and balanced in his thinking, would regard this question of mental self-control. A good man, a man who has de- liberately set before himself an ideal of virtue which he strives to realise, a view of duty which he endeavours to discharge, such a man in the course of the forming of this ideal and the marking out of this line of duty, will recognise that what we call the lower nature is a thing to be mastered, to be controlled. On that no question will arise at all. The passions and the appetites of the body, the lower emotions which hurry people away without reflection and without thought, all that side of the man's nature which is played upon from without so that he acts without consideration, as it would be said, without reflection and without thought — our virtuous man will most certainly say that this is to be dominated and to be kept under control. He will speak of that as the lower nature, and he will seek to reduce it to obedience to the higher. If we examine carefulfy the position of such a man, we shall find that what we mean in ordinary parlance
Thought Control. 47
by a self-controlled man is a man who exercises this mental control over the lower nature, so that the mind controls the desires ; when we say " self-con- trolled " it is the man that is thought of as the self who is controlling. More than that ; if we look at him a little more closely we shall see tiiat what we call the strong will, what we call the formed character, a character which acts along certain definite lines of conduct, a will which, under very difficult circumstances, is still able to guide the nature of which it forms a part along a clear and definite line, we shall find that we mean by such a person that he is one in whom the mind has been largely developed, so that when he comes to act and to decide upon an action he is not determined in his action by the external circumstances, he is not determined in his action by the various attractions that may surround him outside, he is not deter- mined in his action by the answer of the animal nature to those attractions ; he is determined, we shall find, by a mass of experiences recorded in what is called his memory, remembrance of past occurrences, comparison of the results which flowed from these occurrences ; the mind has worked upon all of these, has, as it were, arranged them and com- pared them the one with the other, and has drawn from them a definite result by an intellectual and
48 In the Outer Court.
logical effort. This result remains in the mind a a rule of conduct, and when the man is under cir cumstances that are disturbing, circumstances tha would overcome what is called a weak will, circum- stances that would perhaps lead astray just an average person, this stronger and more developec mind — having laid down a rule of conduct at which it has arrived in a moment of calm, in moment; when the desire-nature is not actively at work, i moments when it is not surrounded by temptation — this mind guides its conduct by this rule of coi duct which has thus been ascertained and lai down, and does not permit itself to be turned oi of its course by tlie attractions or by the impulse of the moment. In dealing with such a person yoi can often forecast what he will do ; you know the principles upon which his conduct is based ; you know the lines of thought which dominate his mind ; and you feel pretty sure — looking at this character, which is definite and formed and strong — you feel pretty sure that no matter what may be the outside temptations, that man will fulfil in the moment of strife the ideal which he conceived in the moments of calm and of reflection. And in speaking of a self-controlled man this is what we generally mean ; he is a man who has reached this stage of development, which is by no means a low
Thought Control. 49
\tage you will observe, in which he has deliberately et himself to work to conquer and to rein in and o manage this lower nature, so that when it is most stimulated into action from without, the Soul shall pe able to hold its own against the inrushing of emptation, and the man shall act on a noble stan- lard, no matter what may be the temptations that urround him to act basely, or in accordance with le temptings of the lower nature.
So far then we have taken what may well be . lUed a virtuous man, this man of high character, of ear thought, of sound judgment, who is by no leans driven hither and thither by circumstances, or by impulses, as is the normal unregulated or ill- egulated nature. But there is another stage to .vhich this man may come, He may come into con- tact with a great philosophy of life which explains to him something more of the workings of the mind ; he may come, for instance, into contact with the great Theosophical teachings, whether as ex- pounded in ancient or modern books, whether he gains them from India, from Egypt, from Greece, or from modern Europe. And in that philosophy he may learn a new view of the Universe, and it may largely modify his own position.
Suppose that such a man should come into the Theosophical Society and should accept its main
50 /;/ the Outer Court.
teachings, he will then begin to realise, far more than he did before he studied things from a Theo- sophical standpoint, the enormous influence of his thoughts. He will begin to understand that when his mind is working, it is exercising that creative power which will be so familiar probably to most of you ; that the mind is actually making definite existences or entities, that in this creative action of the mind it is constantly sending out into the world around active entities that work for good or for evil, and that work often upon the minds and upon the lives of people with whom the creator of these entities does not come into personal contact. He will begin to understand that it is by no means necessary in this affecting of the minds of others that he should put his thought either into spoken or into written words. Nor is it necessary that his thought should show itself in action, so that his ex- ample may become potent for good or for evil. He realises that he may be an exceedingly obscure per- son as the world counts obscurity ; that he may be quite out of sight of the public ; that he may only influence an exceedingly small circle of his friends and relatives who come into personal contact with himself ; but he will see that although he does not come into contact with people personally, although he does not reach them by written or spoken words,
Thought Control. 5 1
he has a power which transcends either the force of example or the forces of speech or of tongue, and that sitting alone and isolated from men, so far as the physical world is concerned, he may be exer- cising a force potent for good or for evil ; he may be purifying or fouling the minds of his genera- tion ; he may be contributing to, helping, or hinder- ing the progress of the world ; he may be raising his race a little higher or depressing it a little lower ; and quite apart from everything that ordi- nary people recognise as the force of precept or of example, he may be influencing the mind of his time by these subtle energies of thought, by these active forms that go into the world of men, that work the more forcibly in that they are invisible, and exercise the wider influence just because they are so subtle that they are unrecognised by the masses whom they afl"ect.
In this way, as he grows in his knowledge, thought will for him take on a new complexion, and he will realise how mighty is the responsibility of thought, that is, how great is the responsibility which is upon his own shoulders, simply as exercis- ing these faculties of the mind. He will realise that his responsibility extends much farther than he can see ; that he is responsible in a very real way often for the crimes that happen in the society
52 In the Outer Court.
to which he belongs, as well as for the deeds of heroism that may also happen in that society. He will grasp that great principle that it by no means follows that the man who does an act is wholly and solely responsible for the act which he performs ; but that every act is a coming into manifestation, a veritable incarnation, of ideas, and that every one who takes part in the generation of the ideas takes